The leaching of uranium from Sella uranium ore using hydrochloric acid solution has been studied. The
effect of different parameters such as leaching time, hydrochloric acid concentration, liquid/ solid mass
ratio, reaction temperature, mechanical stirring speed are investigated in order to optimize various process
parameters for maximizing the recovery of uranium. The maximum percentage uranium leaching of 96 %
is achieved after 15 min of contact time leaching using 3.0 M hydrochloric acid and 4/ 1 liquid/ solid mass
ratio at 26 °C with 400 rpm mechanical stirring speed.
The experimental data are well interpreted with a shrinking core model with diffusion control through
a porous product layer. By using the Arrhenius expression, the apparent activation energy for the uranium
leaching reaction is evaluated.